Browsing by Author "Nadhika, K"

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Analysis of marketing interventions in vegetables for the promotion of marginal and smallholder farmers
(Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture ,Vellanikkara, 2022) Nadhika, K; Jayasree Krishnankutty
Kerala, even with its rich agricultural heritage, depends on neighboring states like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to meet the vegetable demand. To phase out this scenario, the state government initiated many schemes and programs to promote vegetable cultivation among smallholder farmers. Realizing that marketing is the area where smallholder farmers are the weakest, attempts to promote small holder marketing were also devised by the Government. Analysis of such interventions will help to see how far they have benefitted the smallholder farmers. The present study analyzed the marketing interventions like VFPCK, Ecoshop, Kudumbasree Nattuchantha and Agricultural Wholesale Market. The objectives of the study include identification of the components of market-led extension employed by the marketing interventions, analyzing and comparing the marketing efficiency through these interventions, studying the marketing behaviour of beneficiary farmers, examining the constraints experienced by the farmers as well as the implementing agencies and suggesting ways to enhance the marketing system for better inclusion of marginal and small holder farmers. Palakkad district was purposively selected as the location for the selection of VFPCK farmers’ market, Kudumbasree Nattuchantha market and Ecoshop. Two markets each under the selected market interventions were selected randomly. One market under the three Urban Wholesale Markets and one market under the three Rural Wholesale Markets were selected randomly. A sample of 20 farmers each from the different market interventions were selected randomly to form a total sample size of 160 farmers and 40 stakeholders including the marketing officials were selected randomly. Analysis of profile characteristics revealed that more than 50 per cent of the farmers belonged to the middle aged category and 77 per cent had at least high school level education. About 60 per cent of the farmers depended on agriculture alone and the majority of the farmers with vegetable area less than 0.25 ha and 0.25 to 0.4 ha had an annual income of less than 2 lakhs. More than 50 per cent of the farmers used the selected main marketing interventions. Identification of components of market led extension employed by each intervention revealed that VFPCK provided better market led extension services to its beneficiaries. The binary logistic regression analysis revealed that variables like owned land, leased land, area under vegetables, organizational membership and source of price information showed a significant relation with the satisfaction of farmers towards market led extension components. The analysis of marketing efficiency of channels under each intervention revealed that marketing channel 4 under the Ecoshop showed highest efficiency for all the crops and the net price received by the producer was also high for this channel. A scale was constructed to measure the marketing behaviour of the vegetable growers and the results revealed that the beneficiaries under Ecoshops and Agricultural Wholesale Markets showed very good marketing behaviour. Factor analysis using the principal component method was used to reduce the variables into four predictor factors. The results revealed that production factor, proficiency factor and social participation factor had significant influence over the marketing behaviour of farmers. Cluster analysis was carried out to categorize the smallholder farmers into different groups based on their common traits and four clusters identified were named as neoteric farmers, full time farmers, contemporary part time farmers and economically sound part time farmers. Discriminant analysis confirmed the correctness of the predicted group membership of cases under each cluster to be 98 per cent. Competition from other state produce, improper utilisation of surplus produce, poor market infrastructure, delayed payment and lack of coordination among the producers were some of the constraints faced by the smallholder farmers. Facilitation of market oriented production among farmers, provision for value addition and processing of surplus produce, establishing better market infrastructure, ensuring timely payments to farmers and proper channelization of government support towards market infrastructure development were some of the key suggestions for improving the marketing interventions for better inclusion of smallholder farmers.
Stakeholder analysis for enhancing the role primary producers in mango value chains
(Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, 2017) Nadhika, K; Jayasree Krishnankutty
India is the largest mango producing and the chief exporting country in the world with an annual mango production of 18 million metric tons, which accounts for about 50 per cent of the global mango supply. In total India has about 8.97 lakh ha dedicated to mango farming, out of which Kerala accounts for about 77.30 thousand ha under mango cultivation during 2014-’15. Muthalamada in Chittur taluk of Palakkad district, is known as the ‘Mango City’ of Kerala. The mango orchards in Muthalamada covers around 4000 hectares, with about 5000 mango cultivators. The annual production of mango in Muthalamada Panchayat is approximately 40,000 tonnes. However, the mango sector in Palakkad district is not devoid of any problems, which hinders its economic advancement. In this background, the present study entitled “Stakeholder analysis for enhancing the role of primary producers in mango value chain” was taken up in the Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, during 2015-17. The study was formulated with the objectives to identify the stakeholders in mango value chains, their functions and value share, to analyze the institutions and its role in mango value chain, to identify the marketing channels utilized by the farmers, to examine the price spread and marketing efficiency of the farmers, to understand the constraints faced by the farmers and to suggest value chain enhancement measures in favor of producer farmers. Survey was carried out among the mango growers and other stakeholders in Muthalamada Panchayat. About 60 farmers and 30 stakeholders were randomly selected for the study. Stakeholder analysis, SWOC matrix analysis and Scenario analysis were carried out through group discussions. The results of the baseline information of the respondents revealed that the farmers with age in between 51 and 70 years depended on agriculture alone (64.70 per cent) and hence they were more cautious about marketing their produce. They marketed more than 75 per cent of their produce to distant markets such as Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, etc. The respondents had good educational status with experience of more than 20 years and medium extension contact. The farmers cultivating in leased land along with their own orchard (78.26 per cent) tend to go for combined cultivation practices. Two third of the respondents (68.62 per cent) possessing different areas relied on collection agent for marketing their produce as they are easily approachable and the farmers had to incur only transportation cost. The mango growers were well organized, with about 51 respondents (49 per cent) having membership in Farmer Producer Organization (FPO). Alphonso, Banganpally, Bennett Alphonso and Tottapuri are mainly preferred for cultivation as these varieties are having huge demand in both international as well as domestic markets. Stakeholder analysis according to importance- influence scoring revealed that intermediaries like mandi walas, trader, collection agent and pre-harvest contractor had more influence in the mango sector. The major institutions involved in mango value chain include Krishi Bhavan, State Horticulture Mission (SHM), APEDA (Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority), FPOs (Farmer Producer Organizations), Chittur Agro Park and NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development). The marketing channel utilized by the farmers varies according to the grade of the produce, grade 1 is the export quality, grade 2 is usually the undersized mangoes that does not fulfil the export requirement and grade 3 is malformed mangoes or mangoes having external discoloration, etc. In case of grade 1 mangoes both channel 1 and channel 2 were having marketing efficiency 0.14. Margin was highest for the wholesaler and the exporting agency for channel 1 and channel 2 respectively. For grade 2 mangoes, channel 4 was found to be more efficient (0.24) due to absence of an intermediary. Grade 3 mangoes are mainly sold at the local markets and for processing, wherein marketing of mangoes directly to local market was found to be efficient (0.4) whereas in case of processing involvement of too many intermediaries affects the efficiency of the marketing channel. The important factors affecting marketing efficiency according to binary logistic regression include experience, ownership, income source, type of cultivation, orchard type, credit source and marketing channel. A comparative study was made among two groups of farmers, group I comprising of farmers with less than 5 acres of land and group II encompassing farmers with more than 5 acres. The result highlighted that, cultivation type was significantly different for the respondents of the two groups. Major constraints faced by the farmers during marketing include poor availability of market information, absence of a common collection center, over dominance of middle men and deficit of timely labor. Finally, SWOC analysis and scenario analysis were conducted to arrive at strategic options. The strategic options developed from the study are enhancing value addition and product development, promotion of branding of the produce, to educate the farmers on building competitiveness and to increase export potential by addressing quality parameters.